Utah sucks life out of people for business' sake

I haven’t lived I Utah since early 2014 and yet, the one issue I still get heated over is the air pollution that ravaged my lungs and body while I lived in what should have been a beautiful city, a city designated by the Lord God himself as the place where Mormons should settle and greet the coming of the savior, a place that welcomed the Olympics (and did who knows what to their breathing and blood systems as they competed at the highest level), a place that is known for its outdoor activities even while Utahns are routinely exhorted to stay indoors because of bad air.

Utah has so many great things going for it that many citizens can afford to overlook the air quality issue even while their children are being born autistic and diseased and they are losing brain cells, play days and 2 years from their lives. They can afford to overlook the air pollution problems because some days it is so bad you can’t see the hand in front of your face literally. You can’t see downtown from the University of Utah, and you can’t see the mountains from anywhere in the valley. When you can’t see that far, it makes sense to overlook some things.

Now individual Utahns are forced to pay for their health care costs inflicted on them by the bad air, and as a state that refused to cover the gaps left by the ACA, those who make too much money to be on Medicare or Medicaid and not enough to qualify for the national ACA plans are left to deal with medical problems on their own. Others, who are seemingly healthy are looking for ways to make their own personal living areas cleaner. They buy filters and plants rated for cleaning the air better than any other plants. They stay indoors on Red Air days because somehow the air must be magically invited in like a vampire in order to suck the life out of their souls. The buy breathing masks and thousands of other items in an attempt to breathe easier. While their conscience might be assuaged, their bank accounts and their lungs are not.

As long as the Republicans continue to deny science, continue to deny the effects of the air on people and continue to put profits over people, Utah will always face bad air. This sad development only has 2 cures, coming together against bad air on Jan. 21 is a beginning. Voting to throw out charlatans like Todd Weiler, whose district has been languishing under the pollution of Stericycle and the nearby refineries, who at one town hall meeting said that he would run a clean air bill but it would never get passed, and who has since chosen to champion pornography as a public health emergency and has propose Weiler Porn bill after Weiler Porn bill because porn is more of a threat than the very air people breathe, is the second step.

Do not let business and government collude to obfuscate the facts and throw false statistics at you. Do not let them ruin your health and make you pay for it because it is somehow your fault that the air caused your diseases. Do not let them trample your basic rights to life. As long as the prolife party does nothing to value yours, you should be ever sure that the only true values they have are money and power. Take back that power. Show up at the Clean Air, No Excuses Rally and make your presence felt. The battle will be long, but it is time to take the fight for your health and your right to breathe to the capitol.